Saturday, May 31, 2014

Hundred Days Reform: Administration

When
Emperor Guangxu began the Hundred Days’ Reform, he wanted to improve the public
administration of China. Much of his reforms were encouraged by Kang Youwei.
The Emperor wanted to remove unnecessary offices to make the government more
efficient and less costly. Besides removing useless departments, the Emperor
also sought to reform the government by creating new offices and appointing new
officials. The reforms, however, faced formidable enemies which would succeed
in halting the changes.The reforms that will be launched
were on the instigation of the reformist Kang Youwei. Kang viewed a constitutional
monarchy for China. He wanted to create the western style of government based
on three branches of the government: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary.
Having three branches of the government, Kang wanted to have a system of check
and balance between the three branches. Lastly, he would like to have a
National Assembly to be established and served as the legislative branch of the
Empire. These were the vision that he showed the emperor who would launched the
nation toward that direction.

Over the course of a hundred days,
from June 11 to September 21, the Emperor executed the abolishment of many
offices which enraged many. Parts that were to be abolished were sinecure
offices in the government and provinces. For instance, certain jobs were
removed in the Imperial Supervisorate of Instruction, Office of Transmission,
and Court of Imperial Entertainments. Useless jobs were also removed in the
Court of State Ceremonial, Court of Equerries, and the Grand Court of Revision.
Lastly, the Emperor also removed the taotai
or government official in charged on grain transport and salt production and
the Director-General of the Yellow River. Besides removing sinecure jobs in
offices, unnecessary governors were also removed. A sample would be the
removing of the governors of Hupeh, Kwantung, and Yunnan. These actions
made many officials, especially those who will be affected, angry.To reinforce his desire for a more
efficient government, Guangxu appointed new officials, changing many
administrative processes, and created new offices. With the help of Kang,
Emperor Guangxu appointed liberal reformist in key government post. Reformist
such as Lin Xu and Tan Sitong were placed as head of different councils. The
emperor also simplified many administrative processes. Finally, he wanted to
create bureaus to be in charge of agriculture, industry, and commerce in
Peking.